practice the poem, while waiting for your turn just recite it over in your head.when you present just focus on the poem and ignore all else. The trick is to just avoiding all thoughts about other people and what they think.

-practice what you are going to say
-know your subject material like its the back of your hand (or put it on the back of your hand)
-take your time with your words, don't rush
-remember to breath
-remember, if its a school presentation, most people do not care about what is going on, they are trying to get through it as much as you. Try to word in some humor that your classmates would find funny that won't get you in trouble to break any tension.

Public speaking is the balls, but once you get over the initial fright and realize that its no big deal, it actually starts to become fun.

Oh, and if you really think you might pass out, don't lock your knees.

(the back of your hand stuff and the wording in humor might not be the best idea though if its something you have to memorize.)

when asked which they fear more, public speaking or death, a majority replies public speaking

stop being pussies

Well, in my spanish oral test thing, I broke down in front of the whole class by shaking and stuff. I ended up getting a 14/15 on it :P What I'm trying to say is that if you made said poem, then the teacher will probably care about the quality of the poem over your performance.

welp it won't help you within a few days but if you have anxiety issues in general try meditation

If talking in front of an audience is a fear, I learned that you should try to look at the tops of peoples heads. It looks like you're looking at them and it helps calm you down

do you hang out in a mumble? give the speech to people in that mumble a few times. than just imagine you are in that mumble when you are in class giving the speech. Sometimes looking at the teacher can be a little less nerve wracking and the teacher will think you are giving great eye contact. If you have any good friends in the class look at them too. The more you can look at things that don't make you nervous (aka don't look at people you don't know) the better you might do.

I would also listen to ukm.

why do teachers always make people do this shit...

because unfortunately there are a lot of real world situations where you have to interact with others and possibly be giving presentations to people you don't know.

Because it is a valuable life skill. Even if you don't ever present to 20+ people again, most people will have to present to at least small groups on occasion for the rest of their lives

Speak slowly. If you talk fast and make a mistake its obvious. If you talk slower and make a mistake or need to stop for a second, it becomes much less obvious.

Good luck

Just remember that no one will remember or care about your presentation the next day. No one is there to judge you, and most people can sympathize with you being nervous about presenting.

If you have anxiety to the extent that it makes it almost impossible to do things like that, then you should probably see a therapist and/or psychiatrist, because as you advance in school or a career you're probably going to have to present things in front of people a lot. (Though IMO it gets easier in college because your classmates are more mature and supportive. HS kids can be assholes for no reason.)

It's a necessary skill in a lot of careers, unfortunately.

Smile and laugh to yourself if you start to tense up before the presentation. When it starts, think a little bit about how goofy you feel and how ridiculous it is. Smile with the first few words and look around a bit - it will relax you. You might even find yourself enjoying it.

I think the most important thing to do is speak like half - 3/4 the speed of what you think is normal. When you are in front of people speaking, you will speak very quickly especially if you're /nervous/frightened by it. It will sound very awkward to you in your head, but it will sound perfect to your audience.

Next, know what you are going to say before you say it. I am not too shy of speaking in front of people, but when I don't know my material for a presentation, I definitely feel incredibly nervous, whether it be because I think my audience will think I'm stupid, or I'll get a bad grade on the presentation.

Last thing, be confident! If you don't have any confidence going into your speech, try and act like you're confident. Your speech will sound SO much better if you just have confidence behind your words.

like everyone else said, just practice
try get a friend or family member to listen to you present and get comfortable presenting things

i think i never think about this kind of stuff when i'm presenting because i'm just focused on trying to get my information out as clear as possible within the timespan i'm given

Being a speaker and forced to not be shy, a lot of these tips are valid and some of them have even worked for me; trying to get out of stage freight and whatnot. Though some are really counter-intuitive like practicing in mumble, don't do this. The whole face-to-face, need somebody to look at is a big key in helping you get over social anxiety. Do it in a mirror, see what you look like. You need to be comfortable with what you are doing, and if you ever feel like you're about to lose control over anything, sink your shoulders a bit and put weight in your feet. You'll be less likely to be roaming around or jiggling any part of your body taking away from the actual presentation. The major things people are scared about when thinking about a presentation are:

-Forgetting what they're presenting
-Looking like an idiot.

Both kind of bounce off each other in some respects. Study your poem, say it in your head walking in the halls and walk with confidence and purpose. This reinforces your emotions a bit, and it really helps. What Bentomat says, nobody really gives a damn about your presentation, is pretty much true. Don't think this is something you're doing to impress people and get a blowjob for. It's just you talking for a minute. People put too much thought in "What would people think..." or "What if..." when in front of a crowd. Nobody is expecting anymore than some words to come out of your mouth, so just give them what they want.

take a swig of whiskey before hand, that'll take the edge off

practice it with a friend, maybe over mumble. and remember NOBODY CARES IF YOU FUCK UP

Just do pass out and take the pity grade.

thats what most people want me to do, i don't think that will help my anxiety though.

Is this high school or college? Regardless, you should just realize most of the audience doesn't really care. When I'm watching someone present something as stupid (no offense) as a poem, I couldn't care less what he says or how he says it, as long as it finishes before the period ends so I can leave. Obviously this won't be the case if you're an English major studying poetry with a group of excited, aspiring poets. But if you're just a kid taking an intro English/poetry class for a credit (whether in high school or college), I doubt anyone is going to critique you. Most of them will be browsing their smart phones or sleeping. Trust.

if i ever happen to feel anxious about anything, i ask myself "is this even worth feeling anxious for?" the answer is always no, regardless of what it is. that's just me though. basically, i'm telling myself "don't trip." after a while, i'm pretty much always confident.

Pretty much what #2 and #23 said. I just had to do a presentation today, and my whole class the previous days. At least half of the class wasn't listening. Just practice and its just reading.

Worst case scenario, xanax is your friend. That's how my older brother got through his presentations, he was the same way as you.

what if he pisses on his laptop?

One thing I didn't see mentioned yet is saving your presentation for a specific timeslot.

But it only works if the presentation order isn't already set, so the teacher needs asks "who wants to go next?". What you do is you sit back and wait for a noticeably weak presentation to go, then you volunteer to go right after them. It will make your own speech seem much better in comparison to the person that went before you.

I have done this on every speech/presentation and it helps me both grade wise and nerve wise. Sounds a little scummy, but you do what you have to do.

I would give presentations to my dog. Then when I was in front of the class I just imagined everyone was my dog.

you have to be mentally ok if all hell breaks loose, the mouse breaks, you forget what you're talking about and someone starts laughing out laud at you. Cause really, even in this worst case scenario, if you just laugh it off, no one is going to care what went wrong. Everyone wants the awkward situation to be over just ad badly as you do because they can feel it too.

You don't want to memorize any speech material, you want to know it well enough that you can just talk about it without reading from the paper. This is the sure fire way to get out of any bad situation. If you think you need to recite every word as you wrote it down, then you're setting yourself up to fail and you have no fall back.

And the only way to practice public speaking, is public speaking. Try it first in front of family members.

find some xanax or valium, take one

take a deep breath. just focus on scanning your eyes across the room, making "eye contact" (look @ their foreheads, eyebrows, w/e) with everyone. don't pay attention to what you're looking at. just zone out visually and present yo shit. relax.

alternatively, you can pretend you're talking to one of your friends in the class the entire time while still looking around the room, but focusing a bit more on eye contact with that friend.

public speaking is ez, you'll be just fine friend.